Mystery #04 — The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters

‘The next thing, sir, was the alphabet book,’ said Fatty. ‘And, as I daresay you’ve noticed, the alphabet letters in such a book are always in capitals. A is for Apple, and so on. So I guessed that book had been bought as a kind of reference book for capital letters, by somebody who wasn’t quite sure of the difference in shape of big and small letters. The capital letter G, for instance, is quite different from the small letter g. Naturally the anonymous letter-writer didn’t want to give away the fact that she hadn’t had enough education to know the difference.’

‘Well worked out, Frederick, well worked out,’ said the Inspector, most interested. ‘What about this?’ He held up the copybook.

‘That’s easy, sir,’ said Fatty. ‘Even Bets could read that clue now!’

‘Yes, I can!’ called Bets. ‘That’s a copybook Mrs. Moon must have bought to practise writing capital letters in. There’s lots of capitals printed there in pencil.’

‘I expect if you ask at the stationer’s, Inspector, you’ll find that Mrs. Moon did buy a copybook there some weeks ago!’

‘Make inquiries, Goon,’ said the Inspector. Goon hurriedly made a note in his notebook.

‘The bus time-table was an easy clue,’ said Fatty. ‘I guessed I’d find that 10.15 bus marked. And this bit of torn paper, sir - used as a bookmark in the dictionary, I should think - must have been torn from a recipe of some sort. I knew that as soon as I read the words - “spoonful” - “stir” - “oven”. I expect you will find that they are in Mrs. Moon’s ordinary handwriting, and torn from her kitchen recipe-book.’

‘A most ingenious reading of rather peculiar clues!’ said the Inspector, looking really pleased. ‘What a pity, Mr. Goon, you didn’t take the trouble to look carefully through the clues yourself, and deduct from them all that Frederick has done.’

‘Thought they was all false clues,’ muttered Mr. Goon. ‘Made me angry, they did.’

‘It’s a mistake to let anger cloud your thinking, Goon,’ said the Inspector. ‘If you had only examined these clues carefully, you might have arrived at the same conclusions as Frederick here - but again, you might not!’

It was apparent that the Inspector believed that Goon would certainly not have made such good use of the clues as Fatty had!

Mrs. Moon suddenly threw her apron over her head and wailed loudly. She rocked to and fro again, and Bets watched her in dismay. She didn’t like people who shouted and howled.

‘You’re all against me, you are!’ wailed Mrs. Moon. ‘Not a friend have I got in the world! You’re all against me!’

‘You have only yourself to blame, my good woman,’ said Inspector Jenks sharply. ‘You yourself are apparently filled with spite against a great many people - and you cannot be surprised if you have no friends. I’m afraid you must come with me for further questioning. Mrs. Hilton, I fear that Mrs. Moon will not be returning to you.’

‘I don’t want her,’ said Mrs. Hilton, with a shudder. ‘A cruel, underhand, spiteful woman like that in my house! No, never. Poor Gladys. I’ll fetch her back at once. I’m horrified and disgusted, Mrs. Moon. You have caused a great deal of pain and grief to many people, and I hope you will be well punished.’

‘You don’t mind us having investigated the case now, Mother, do you?’ said Pip, thinking this was a good opportunity to get his mother to agree.

‘Well - I didn’t want you mixed up in such an unpleasant business,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘And I must say that I thought Mr. Goon could manage it himself. But I do think you worked out things very cleverly - especially Fatty, of course.’

‘Oh, all the Find-Outers did their bit,’ said Fatty loyally. ‘I couldn’t have done without them. And,’ he said, with a glance at Mr. Goon, ‘we did have a lot of fun at times - didn’t we, Pip?’

‘We did!’ said all the others, and grinned at poor Mr. Goon, who did one of his snorts, and scowled heavily at them.

The Inspector got up. ‘Get your outdoor things, Mrs. Moon,’ he said. ‘You must come with me. Goon, I want you too. But perhaps, when I have finished my work here, at about four o’clock this afternoon, Mrs. Hilton, the children could come over to Nutting, where I’m going then, and have tea with me in the big hotel there? I feel I would like to have a little chat with the Five Find-Outers - and Dog - again!’

‘Oooh!’ said Bets, delighted.

‘Woof,’ said Buster, pleased.

‘Oh thanks!’ said the others.

Mrs. Moon went out, weeping. The Inspector shook hands with Mrs. Hilton and went out to his car. ‘See you this afternoon!’ he said, to the delighted children.

Mrs. Hilton went out to see that Mrs. Moon did what she was told. The children followed the Inspector to his big black car. Mr. Goon was left behind in the drawing-room, looking gloomily at the carpet. He was alone with his thoughts.

No - he wasn’t alone! Buster was there too, regarding his old enemy with a bright eye. No one was there to say, ‘Come here, Buster!’ What a chance!

With a joyful yelp he flung himself at Mr. Goon’s ankles, and pulled at his blue trousers. Mr. Goon rose up in alarm.